Like many Lutheran answers, the answer you are looking for is often, “yes.” Meaning that when God’s Word presents us with two ideas that seem to contradict one another, but knowing that God’s Word can’t contradict itself, the answer becomes a simple “yes.” Water baptism or spiritual baptism? Yes. Is Jesus present in the Lord’s Supper or is He in heaven reigning over us? Yes. Can one lose his salvation or is he always in Christ? Yes. So it is with this Lutheran duo. Are we called to be a Confessional Church or a Confessing Church? Yes.
To understand this, we must revisit history; a very disturbing, yet essential part of world history. In the 1930’s, the Third Reich of the Nazi Regime in Germany was being ushered in. In 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor by the Nazi Party. German Nationalism began to take over the churches. Where the cross was, now was a swastika. There was no longer separation of Church and State. The Church was being urged to conform to State Legislation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was having none of it and became known for his resistance against German Nationalism and the Nazi Party. In one of his many efforts to speak and act against this evil, on Reformation Sunday, 1934, Bonhoeffer stood in the pulpit and preached on 1 Corinthians 13, with heavy emphasis on verse 13:
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
In this sermon, he was referencing the difference between the Confessional Church and the Confessing Church, two wonderful German Lutheran entities. The Confessional Church refers to the Christians who come to church on Sundays, sit in their pews (or cushioned chairs), speak crystal clear and pure doctrine, say their prayers, sing their hymns, and celebrate the Sacrament. All wonderful things that should be observed in the church – except for when that’s all there is for the church.
A church that is great in faith must be greater in love. Bonhoeffer preaches about the Confessional Church, saying, “The message of saving and redeeming faith alone became rigid, became a dead record because it was not kept alive through love.” Pushing his point even further, Dietrich boldly proclaims, “The church of faith – even if it is the most orthodox (Confessional) faith that faithfully adheres to the Creeds – is of no use if it is not even more a church of all-embracing love.”
Wow. Dietrich puts the church on blast, calling the church that does not love USELESS. That should convict the hell out of us Lutherans. The church is useless without love. And so, he urges the German Lutheran church to be more than just a Confessional Church, but a Confessing Church. For Germany, the Confessing Church was a church that would love without calculating what it might cost. A church that would serve without wondering who was worthy of serving. It was a church that would not submit to Nationalism. A church that would stand on the Confessions of God’s Word and continue to speak truth in the face of persecution. It was a church that would not fold like a cheap tent, but be willing to drive a stake into the wheels of injustice to stop the forces of evil.
This is the love of neighbor. This is the love of Christ. For it is Christ who has stakes driven into his wrists and his feat, thorns into his head, lashes into his back and side. It is precisely this that defeats sin, death, and the devil. Jesus was not passive, but active. Jesus did not board up the heavens and tell people how to love and serve. Jesus did not cheer hopefully for the Church to prevail against the gates of hell. Jesus loved. Jesus served. Jesus stormed. Jesus acted! And He calls His church to act in the same way.
The Confessing Church, after all, is an active church. Confessional churches without love are useless and destructive. The Confessing Church exhibits the love of Christ, the sacrificial love of Christ. The Confessing Church serves, while the Confessional Church tells other churches that they need to evangelize. The Confessing Church storms the gates of hell because the gates of hell cannot prevail!
Do not be confused. Do not write me an angry email because “I don’t believe in Confessional Lutheranism.” Let me be very clear: We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, which is revealed to us in Scripture alone. But, faith is never alone (Luther).
“But know that to serve God is nothing else that to serve your neighbor and do good to him in love, be it a child, wife, servant, enemy, friend…If you do not find yourself among the needy and the poor, where the Gospel shows us Christ, then you may know that your faith is not right, and that you have not yet tasted Christ’s benevolence and work for you.” Martin Luther speaks for the Confessing Church as well. It’s why James says that faith without works is dead (James 2:17).
Whether we are loving our neighbors in resisting evil or serving the poor, we do not live in the greatness of our own deeds. We boast in the greatness of one deed that God himself has done through Jesus Christ on the cross, dying for us and rising, giving us new life in Him. It is from this that we love and serve.
So, are we called to be Confessional or Confessing?
Now do it, relying soley on the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rev. Tyler Cronkright 